Refresh your Run- How to Banish Boredom when Running

Many runners, like me, find great solace in the comforting repetition of placing one foot in front of the other mile after mile after mile. The almost banal sameness of the action feels comfortable somehow, familiar and homely. There comes a deep satisfaction that connects on a neurological level, satisfaction that appears to be rooted in a primal relationship between our brain, our body and the surrounding landscape. Those repetitive movements are the cue to release memories of a million years ago when we would only survive, day to day, by running after prey, by running away from danger and of always being on the move, nomadic hunters that we were. We are, as is the cliche, born to run.

But if we run for pleasure rather to survive prehistoric dangers- for the good of our mental or physical health, to lose weight or just simply to move as our evolution affords us- we can get bored of this routine and sameness. Because there is often so little change in our running routes and techniques, the tiniest shift towards something new can feel refreshing and exciting (yes, I know it sounds pretty lame that wearing a new pair of shorts can make that much difference but it really does). 

Here are some tips to keep your runs interesting when boredom sets in:

-Run your route the opposite way round, if it is a loop 

-Try a new route. Run off road if you usually run on pavements, pavements if you are a trail runner. Include a hill or two if you usually run on the flats

-Listen to music if you normally go without. If you run with headphones, try a new genre or a podcast instead.

-Add side roads. It doesn’t matter if you run around in circles or up and down the road, it’s all movement and it’s all distance. The tiniest change in scenery can make a big difference to your interest levels

-Try fartlek running (stop sniggering. Fartleks- Swedish for "speed play"- are the type of run you make up as you go along eg. marathon slow pace for 10 minutes, then race to that lamppost, walk to the street corner up there, race that pigeon, slow down to that next bush, etc)

-Change the time of day you run. This can hugely affect the feel of the run as your body may have already completed a full day of movement prior to your run instead of going out in the morning as usual, or your hydration levels will be different from one end of the day to the other which makes the run feel different too. Going for a run at the end of a working day, when you are tired, may be a surprisingly invigorating pick me up or may positively add to feelings of calm prior to settling down for the evening meal and movie

-New clothing or accessories. You would be surprised how much difference a new T-shirt or shorts can make. Or if you change your phone holder from an arm-band to a waist belt. See also: cap, sunglasses, step-counter, smartwatch, etc.

-Phone apps that encourage new running styles. I know some people who have traversed a running funk by downloading an app to their phone and can now hear zombies chasing them as they run- if their pace slows down the zombies’ moans get louder and louder as they catch up with you encouraging you to keep going

-Read running books. I always find that reading about running hugely motivates me to get out there and go for it. This could be motivational stories of fighting adversity or trauma through being active or, my preferance, books about our human evolutionary history of running, the philosophy of running or the anatomy/physiology of running and movement. 

-Run with others. Having company when you are out can be the change some people need to refresh their love of running. It is useful to note that the majority of runs (certainly all long runs when training for a race and most other non-training runs) are at “marathon-pace” ie. you can hold a conversation when running, and therefore running with a partner and having a chat on the way is good practice. You don’t have to wait for a close friend to run with because a running club will do. Or do you remember that friend of a friend who wants to get out but might be too nervous to go alone? This could be the company you both need

-Review your reasons to run. Runners sometimes call this their “why”. Why do you run? Losing weight? Mental health? Want to live longer? Worried about those messy unwell years at the end? Sometimes when I am in a rut I will revisit the latest health statistics that prove how much better my chances are, if I run regularly, of avoiding diabetes, cancers, heart disease, strokes and a whole range of other killers and disabling diseases. For me, running is primarily about maintaining mental wellness- keeping depression and the trauma of raw grief at bay is my “why” above all others- but revisiting these physical health benefits keeps my incentives fresh.

-Training runs when you are not training. Most runners, most of the time, value their "long run" above all others, it speaks deeply to us, it is why we run, it is how we have evolved as a species. But other types of runs assist us to mix up these experiences and help keep boredom at bay. Just like fartlek training above you can try hill repeats (30-40 second fast-as-you-can rush up a steep hill, slowly jog down and repeat 6-20 times depending on fitness levels), High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) such as 30 second fast pace sprint, then 2 minutes gentle jog then repeat 10 times, Ladder runs (30s fast run, brief jog, 1 min. fast run, brief jog, 2 min. fast run, brief jog and so on) or the Run/Walk method (there are many variations but one that suits me- run for 14 mins, walk for 3 mins and repeat or run for 5, walk for 1).

-Turn off (or on) your gadgets. There are fewer people more obssessed with exercise gadgets than runners (with a possbile exception of road cyclists, the ones with all the lycra, drop-handlebars and very austere expressions). It is easy to pore over every measured stride, heartbeat, and minutes per mile but there is also freedom to be had from consciously disconnecting from the prison of statistics and running purely by feel. Try it. And if you usually run without any quantification or measuring gadgets, boredom might be the necessary catalyst to start keeping a closer eye on perceived progress, personal bests and incremental gains.

-Smile at every passer by and smile to yourself. Know how much fun running can be so make it fun- pretend you are 7 and in a school race, imagine yourself as the Olympic hopeful on the marathon's final straight, be the hero in your own movie racing down a beautiful exotic beach smashing the world record, be the bronzed Greek god admired by all who see you blaze past. If you look and act sunny you will feel sunny. 

 

Fixing is Crafting

 

I undercharged my the early days as a cycle mechanic because I was learning as I went along and each job took at least twice as long it would have taken an experienced mechanic. Of course I am always learning which is why some jobs that pose new problems can take hours, even now, instead of only minutes as it should. I will charge the customer for much less time than the job takes me and I alway enjoy those learning experiences as a mechanic growing in skill partially for the simple joy of stretching my knowledge and having increased my skills in a very specific way but, most valuably for me, I overcome a problem. This is a skill uniquely enabled by experience- that of problem-solving confidence rooted in pragmatism.

For example, it is only when you have worked on the same gear changer scores of times can you feel confidently aware that you will find a workaround for that corroded spring that, to the inexperienced eye, looks like an irreplacable part (which it isn't) that cannot be fixed (which it can). It may appear as if this means the end of the gear changer's life with the associated cost and increased customer waiting time while a new part is ordered. Instead you literally make a new one from wire. Or you cut the old one and reshape. Or you find a replacement part in a different gear changer that you have in the parts drawer and you modify sections. This is experience- crafting as fixing, the aesthetic becomes ergonomic.

One moment of great satisfaction working with bicycles came when I received a much loved commuting bike that had been in a crash. The crankset (three big cogs at the front) was bent like a taco. I knew it was made of steel rather than aluminium which meant it could be bent back to something resembling a straight line (aluminium can also be bent but it fails quickly after flexing). Some parts of this steel crankset were buckled and the only way to move those parts the few millimeters that were needed was with a punch (a small steel rod with a pointed end) and hammer, specifically a punch with a horseshoe-shaped point which, as far as I know, doesn't exist to buy. I had a choice, I could either order a new crankset at great time and cost to the owner or I could make a new tool- a horseshoe-shaped punch- learning a new skill in this process and charge the owner for only the 30 minutes it took to do the actual work of straightening the crankset. So I cut a 15cm length of 12mm diameter "01 tool steel" bar, shaped the end into a horseshoe with a set of drills and files, hardened it with a blow-torch (around 800 degrees celcius) and, when quenched and cooled, tapped the crankset teeth twice with the punch and hammer and they were free. The rest of the crankset took minutes to gently tease back into a working mechanism- as straight as it would ever be. I've never used that punch since and probably never will again but the feeling I had when it knocked those cog teeth free after those two light but thoughtfully placed taps from the hammer clarified this important aspect of mechanics to me- that of craft. Not only the craft of making a tool but the idea of craft behind the physical manifestation of the tool itself- I had to design and craft a tool imaginatively to solve a problem. My predictions, based on repetitive experience, provided the solution. To fix is to craft, the aesthetic becoming the ergonomic.